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Inside the Correlation Between College-Town Infection Rates and Football Fan Attendance

In two weeks, the small college town of Oxford, Miss., will do what it does best. It will host a party.

This isn’t just any old soiree—it’s the largest social affair in the state in six months. More than 15,000 people are expected to attend, all gathering on the Ole Miss campus at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, presumably in masks and socially distanced. The Rebels football team will provide the entertainment, colliding with the Florida Gators to kick off the SEC’s 2020 season with a nationally televised 11 a.m. start on Sept. 26.

But while the party rages inside, signs of a pandemic bustle outside.